Rematched Haigh, Griffey face off in forum

BREMERTON - Funding public education, and finding the means to do so, was the central issue at a Tuesday morning forum between state Rep. Kathy Haigh, D-Shelton, and her Republican challenger, Dan Griffey.The candidates for the Position 1, 35th District state House seat fielded questions from about two dozen people who attended the Bremerton Area Chamber of Commerce's Eggs & Issues series at the Cloverleaf Sports Bar & Grill.

This year's race for the seat is a rematch between the two candidates. Haigh defeated Griffey by 1 percentage point in 2010.

Griffey, a firefighter living in Allyn, opened the forum with a call to remember the lives lost 11 years ago on Sept. 11, 2001, and continued with a refrain he repeated throughout the morning — the state should reduce taxes and regulations on small businesses to allow the economy to thrive.

Griffey also supports suspending the Growth Management Act so that property owners may decide for themselves how to build on their land.

"It's tragic what we do to our businesses," he said. "It's time we take back our rural communities."

Haigh, who has owned a veterinary clinic in Shelton for 34 years, said that the most crucial issue facing the state right now is the lack of jobs.

"We have basically survived the last three or four years in our state," she said. "I think the jobs are coming back. I think the biggest issue is to make sure the Navy stays in Bremerton."

Haigh has served in the Legislature for 14 years and emphasized her dedication to funding public education and providing other types of job-training skills for students.

The conversation continued to shift toward education, as several audience members pressed the issue from different angles.

When asked how she would fund education at all levels, Haigh said she didn't know how the state would get the money, but that the burden should be lifted from local property taxpayers.

She added, however, that a sales-tax increase was not out of the question.

Griffey said he would fund education first and cut it last. He said he did not support a tax increase.

Griffey added that K-12 learning would be his primary education focus, followed by higher education.

He said he did not prioritize early learning.

"I consider my all-day kindergarten to be my preschool," he said. "I think birth is really too early for government to be involved."

Haigh countered that the first five years of a child's development are crucial to the path they take later in life.

She said reaching children in those early years alleviates their reliance on public assistance, which, she later added, are the types of services likely be cut to make room in the budget for education.

Griffey countered that increasing jobs for parents is what reduces the need for welfare to support children.

Zero-base budgeting and eliminating duplicate services across the state will also free up dollars for education, he said.

Answering a question about whether he supported charter schools, Griffey said he supported an experiment that would deregulate education and "allow schools to thrive without government involvement."

He added, however, that he would want schools to remain under local control.

Haigh said that she does not support charter schools.

"There are many other options out there (for students)," she said. "I believe that charter schools are all about profits to increase big business … I believe in local control."

Two questions later, the issue of local control came up again, when Griffey said he would like to see major ports in the 35th district merge into a regional port authority.

That type of system would allow freight to move with more ease, helping out businesses, he said.

Haigh countered that a regional port system would mean giving up local control of ports.

Haigh supports finding a new system to fund the Washington State Ferries. Griffey said the state should eliminate itself as the middle man and allow the ferry system to keep the proceeds it pays in gas taxes instead of paying them back to the state, which then funnels the money back to the ferries and other road projects.

Griffey supports requiring a two-thirds majority vote to increase taxes and does not support a state income tax. He said that reducing unemployment would help the economy more than a tax increase.

Haigh said any tax increase would likely go to a vote of the people. She does not support a state income tax.

Haigh is also an advocate for a simple majority vote of 51 percent on tax increases, noting that she first entered politics because she saw how school levies could fail even if they had 60 percent of the vote.

"I don't believe that's democratic," she said. "If you don't like how your legislators vote, then elect them out."

Both candidates talked about changing the rate at which minimum wage accelerates, and both said the "use-it-or-lose-it mentality" that state agencies have at the end of a budget cycle should be eliminated.The next Eggs & Issues candidate forum will take place at 7:30 a.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 18, at the Cloverleaf Bar & Grill and will feature candidates running in races in Kitsap County Superior Court.